ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.

SAFE HARBOR FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that relate to our plans, objectives, estimates and goals. Statements expressing expectations regarding our future and projections relating to products, sales, revenues and earnings are typical of such statements and are made under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," and "estimate," and variations of such words and similar expressions, identify such forward-looking statements. Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including the following:

• changes in business and economic conditions, including downturns in the semiconductor industry and/or the overall economy;

• our ability to accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards in a timely manner;

• our ability to accurately predict customer demand and thereby avoid the possibility of obsolete inventory, which would reduce our profit margins;

• our customers' and distributors' ability to manage the inventory they hold and forecast their demand;

• our ability to achieve cost savings and improve yields and margins on our new and existing products;

• our ability to respond to possible downward pressure on the average selling prices of our products caused by our customers or our competitors;

• our ability to efficiently utilize our capacity, or to acquire additional capacity, in response to customer demand;

• the inability of certain of our customers to access their traditional sources of credit, which could lead them to reduce their level of purchases or seek credit or other accommodations from us;

• our ability to continue to improve our product designs, develop new products in response to new technologies, and achieve design wins;

• our dependence on a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenue;

• our ability to bring new products to market in response to market shifts and to use technological innovation to shorten time-to-market for our products;

• the risks associated with our wafer fabrication facilities, our assembly facility and our test and tape and reel facilities;

• variability in manufacturing yields, and raw material costs and availability;

• our dependence on third parties, including wafer foundries, wafer starting material suppliers, passive component manufacturers, assembly and packaging suppliers and test and tape and reel suppliers;

• our ability to manage channel partner and customer relationships;

• our ability to procure, commercialize and enforce intellectual property rights (IPR) and to operate our business without infringing on the unlicensed IPR of others;

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• the risks associated with security breaches and other similar disruptions, which could compromise our information and expose us to liability and could cause our business and reputation to suffer;

• currency fluctuations, tariffs, trade barriers, tax and export license requirements and health and security issues associated with our foreign operations; and

• our ability to attract and retain skilled personnel and develop leaders for key business units and functions.

These and other risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in other reports and statements that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, could cause the actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any of these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made and we undertake no obligation to update or revise such statements, except as required by the federal securities laws.

OVERVIEW

The following Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") is intended to help the reader understand the consolidated results of operations and financial condition of RF Micro Devices, Inc. MD&A is provided as a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes.

We are a recognized global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance radio frequency (RF) components and compound semiconductor technologies. Our products enable worldwide mobility, provide enhanced connectivity and support advanced functionality in the mobile device, wireless infrastructure, wireless local area network (WLAN or WiFi), cable television (CATV)/broadband, Smart Energy/advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and aerospace and defense markets. We are recognized for our diverse portfolio of semiconductor technologies and RF systems expertise, and we are a preferred supplier to the world's leading mobile device, customer premises and communications equipment providers.

We design, develop, manufacture and market our products to both domestic and international original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers in both wireless and wired communications applications, in each of our following operating segments.

• Cellular Products Group (CPG) is a leading global supplier of cellular radio frequency (RF) components which perform various functions in the cellular front end section, located between the transceiver and the antenna. These components are increasingly required in next-generation 3G and 4G devices, and they include power amplifier (PA) modules, transmit modules, antenna control solutions, antenna switch modules, switch filter modules and switch duplexer modules. CPG supplies its broad portfolio of cellular RF components into a variety of mobile devices, including smartphones, handsets, netbooks, notebooks, tablets and USB modems.

• Multi-Market Products Group (MPG) is a leading global supplier of a broad array of RF components, such as PAs, low noise amplifiers, variable gain amplifiers, high power GaN transistors, attenuators, mixers, modulators, switches, voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO's), phase locked loop modules, circulators, isolators, multi-chip modules, front end modules, and a range of military and space components (amplifiers, mixers, VCOs, power dividers and transformers). Major communications applications include mobile wireless infrastructure (2G, 3G and 4G), point-to-point and microwave radios, WiFi (infrastructure and mobile devices), and cable television wireline infrastructure. Industrial applications include Smart Energy/AMI, private mobile radio, and test and measurement equipment. Aerospace and defense applications include military communications, radar and electronic warfare, as well as space communications.

• Compound Semiconductor Group (CSG) has been established to leverage our compound semiconductor technologies and related expertise in RF and non-RF end markets and applications. CSG provides RFMD's foundry services for both GaAs and GaN technologies.

As of June 30, 2012, our reportable segments are CPG and MPG. CSG does not currently meet the quantitative threshold for an individually reportable segment under ASC 280-10-50-12. These business segments are based on the organizational structure and information reviewed by our Chief Executive Officer, who is our chief operating decision maker (or CODM), and are managed separately based on the end markets and applications they support. The CODM allocates resources and assesses the performance of each operating segment primarily based on operating income (loss) and operating income (loss) as a percentage of revenue.

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